Staff

Nigel Francis is the CEO & Executive Director and Officer at LIFT.

Prior to joining LIFT, Francis served as Vice President and Officer, Advanced Engineering & Technology Development at American Axle (NYSE:AXL). Francis was also Senior Automotive Adviser to the State of Michigan and Senior Vice President, Automotive Industry Office, Michigan Economic Development Corporation where he was charged with developing, implementing and executing a comprehensive strategic plan and road map to promote, retain and grow the automotive industry in Michigan.

Francis has over 40 years of experience in the global automotive, aerospace and defense sectors, having held executive level positions at OEM and Tier 1 companies in North America and Europe, including Executive Vice President, Bright Automotive, and Vice President, Vehicle Engineering at Mercedes-Benz Technology. He has spent most of his career in advanced design and engineering, product development and had been closely involved with clean technology through hybrid and electric vehicle development and vehicle light-weighting initiatives, and weapon and armor systems design and engineering.

Francis holds a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from Brunel University in London, England. Professional affiliations include fellow, Institute of Mechanical Engineers of Great Britain; chartered engineer, Great Britain; Member SAE and Member SME. He sits on the advisory boards of several technology companies and universities, is a director and officer of the US Manufacturing Innovation Council and a director of the British American Business Council of Michigan.

Victor Claudio serves as Chief Financial Officer at the LIFT.

In this role, Claudio is responsible for all financial and administrative functions of the organization. Claudio brings to LIFT a diverse background in both the public and private sectors, with a keen focus on organizational finance and business operations. Claudio’s professional experience includes product development, fundraising, start-ups, and value stream alignment for small, medium and enterprise companies.

Recently, Claudio created a retention and scalability strategy and led the design of a suite of servicing products for one of the leading financial technology enterprise companies in the United States managing a portfolio of over $250B in recurring annual volume. Claudio is credited for the creation of new products that led to additional revenue streams of over $780M within 6 months of launch.

Prior to his role in enterprise product strategy, Claudio co-founded a financial technology and service company focused on creating a new vertical in the financial industry. The result was a digital personal financial wellness product providing services and solutions for the financial services industry. Claudio also successfully owned and operated a process manufacturing and consulting business where he provided a wide range of services to streamline and improve manufacturing technologies and processes for the electronics industry.

Claudio began his career with Code Alarm Inc., holding various technical positions, where he led effective teams of technicians and engineers through the manufacturing, production test and product development cycles for the leader in automotive security for OEM and retail industries.

Claudio studied internationally and possesses a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico. Claudio also holds an MBA in Accounting and Master’s degree in Financial Management and a post graduate certificate in financial planning.

Noel Mack is the Chief Technology Officer at LIFT.

In this role, Mack implements new technology focus areas to ensure alignment with Department of Defense priorities, directs large scope, complex projects and programs, leads LIFT member involvement in technology projects and serves as a mentor to LIFT technical and engineering staff.

Mack brings over 35 years of experience in engineering and design to LIFT. Previously, Mack served as a Product Line Executive, Strategic Technologies at American Axle & Manufacturing, Inc. and as Director and Business Unit Lead, Driveline and Transmission Systems at Ricardo’s Detroit Technical Center. Mack also held leadership positions at Magna International, Inc. and Magna Steyr.
He began his career in the aerospace and defense industries, working at Denel Aviation as the Principal Engineer, Stress and Design, and as Manager of CAD and Specialist CAE Engineer for Combat Vehicles, Tanks, Heavy and Light Armored Vehicles at Denel Land Systems/Ermetek.

Mack holds six U.S. patents and is a graduate of both the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering with Aeronautical Specialization and the University of Detroit Mercy, where he earned a Master of Engineering Management degree and a Graduate Certificate in Business Turnaround Management.

Robert Shaner, Ph. D., serves as the Chief Workforce Development Officer at LIFT.

In this role, Dr. Shaner leads all of LIFT’s talent development programs across the nation, including the IGNITE: Mastering Manufacturing STEM program and the institute’s Operation Next skilled trades program.

Dr. Shaner joined LIFT after nearly 20 years in the educational field. Immediately prior to joining LIFT, Dr. Shaner served as the Superintendent of Rochester (Michigan) Community Schools where he oversaw budget development, management, and allocation of $300M in total annual revenue, servicing 23 sites, 15K students, 1.8K employees with a focus on long-term sustainability. His work, particularly in continuous improvement initiatives, resulted in 10 schools being identified as Reward Schools by Michigan Department of Education (MDE) and recognized with National Blue Ribbons.

Dr. Shaner also worked as the Executive Director of Infrastructure & Technology for the Warren (Michigan) Consolidated Schools and as the principal of a High School and Middle School.

Before working in education, Dr. Shaner served as a patrol officer with the Troy and St. Clair Shores Police Departments.

Dr. Shaner also served in the United States Marine Corps in the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit as a First Lieutenant deployed to Somalia and in the Gulf War. He also served as a Captain in the United States Marine Corps Reserve at Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

Joe Steele is the Executive Vice President, Public Affairs & Ecosystem at LIFT.

Steele is responsible for building relationships with federal, state and local stakeholders, along with media on behalf of the institute. Steele also supports the organization’s technology, sales, and marketing teams.

Through his work at LIFT, Steele communicates the LIFT story to federal stakeholders in Congress, the Department of Defense, as well as state and local policymakers. His work has led to funding being directed to LIFT and its national ecosystem to conduct materials and manufacturing research on behalf of the Department of Defense, particularly in the area of hypersonics.

Steele is a veteran communications and public affairs leader with a track record of developing and executing successful plans and strategies, delivering legislative victories, employee engagement and building key stakeholder relationships for Fortune 500 companies, statewide political campaigns, nonprofits and startups.

Over his career, Steele has led the public affairs strategy for a large telecommunications company, managed internal communications for a large financial institution as it transitioned through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) and built a Political Action Committee (PAC).

Steele began his career as a reporter for several newspapers across Michigan, before moving to politics to lead the communications for a U.S. Senate campaign and then as a staff member in the Michigan House of Representatives followed by serving as an appointee of the Michigan Secretary of State.

Steele has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Telecommunications from Michigan State University.

Kevin Kerrigan is the Senior Vice President, Regional Development at LIFT.

In this role, Kerrigan’s focus is connecting LIFT with manufacturers across industries to help them work with the institute to further develop, optimize and commercialize their innovations.

Kerrigan brings to LIFT decades of experience in the manufacturing sector, having previously served as Senior Vice President, Automotive Office and the Senior Automotive Adviser to the State of Michigan with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. In this role, he focused on international business development for the MEDC’s Automotive Office. When working with the world’s automotive manufacturers, he was promoting Michigan’s automotive industry, building and maintaining strong international client relationships, nurturing economic development and assisting foreign based companies who choose Michigan for their future expansion.

Prior to working with the MEDC, Kerrigan led his own automotive design and engineering company for 20 years and has worked at an executive level for Tier 1 automotive suppliers. Kerrigan was also President of Eurotech Design, Inc. a Michigan based full-service engineering organization, President of Adaptive Systems a turnkey robotic integration company. Additionally, Kerrigan was Chief Engineer at Tata Technologies and Principal Engineer for International Automotive Components based at their Advanced Development Center, Troy Michigan.

In 2021, Kevin was awarded an MBE (Member of the British Empire) for his services to the British automotive industry, by Queen Elizabeth II.

Kerrigan completed a full indentured British Mechanical Engineering Apprenticeship in the UK.

Tony Bromwell is Vice President, Advanced Development at LIFT.

At LIFT, Bromwell directs advanced development programs focused on advancing material development for extreme environments.

Bromwell’s experience in applying advanced technology and manufacturing solutions via computer simulation exceeds 30 years, during which time he has either led or contributed to the development of hundreds of new products. This experience spans multiple industries from Marine, Automotive, Heavy Truck, Off-highway and Aviation, and across multiple design attributes from structural, impact dynamics, fluid dynamics, manufacturing, and others. Prior to getting involved with the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) field, Bromwell was engaged with the plastics/composites industry supporting many of the industries noted above. He led the engineering department in converting parts from hand-layup and SMC/BMC into the more robust RIM (Reaction Injection Molding) process – responsible for the design, analysis and patenting of many innovative products. Prior to the Plastics Industry, Bromwell served as a Naval Architect & Marine Engineer participating on the design of multiple marine vessels operating in both commercial and military environments. The largest of which was a 950-foot roll-on/roll-off ship for the U.S. Military Sealift Command.

Bromwell possess an engineering degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering from the University of Michigan.

Terry Dillard is Vice President, Department of Defense Sales at LIFT.

Prior to joining LIFT, Dillard was a Capture Manager at Aerojet Rocketdyne with a focus on medium and large solid rocket motors. Dillard was also a Field Office Business Development Representative for ATK/Orbital ATK in Huntsville, AL where he was the voice of many of the company’s customers. Dillard began his career as a composites processing engineer with Thiokol Corporation/ATK with specialties in filament winding, pultrusion, tape laying, tape wrapping and hand layup manufacturing techniques.

Dillard has over 30 years of experience in the aerospace and defense industry. He spent about half of his career in the technical side of the business and the other half on the strategy and business development side. He led multiple successful large capture programs in the last 7 years.

Dillard holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Mississippi in Oxford, MS and a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Alabama, Huntsville in Huntsville, Alabama.

Dr. John Keogh is the Vice President, Technology at LIFT.

In this role, Dr. Keogh leads all digital and physical aspects of engineering at LIFT, alongside strategic planning and business development with LIFT’s CTO. He is currently spearheading LIFT's Materials Informed Digital Acceleration Suite (MIDAS) for Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME), further expanding AMPP, and actively developing CerMaC and HEET.

Dr. Keogh has a robust background spanning 20 years in R&D, synthetic and analytical chemistry, materials science, and various engineering disciplines, which has evolved through several pivotal roles at LIFT, from Development Engineer to his current position as Vice President of Technology.

Dr. Keogh earned his Ph.D. in 2018 from the University of Arizona, focusing on analytical, physical, and astrochemistry. He also holds an M.A. in Chemistry, and B.S. degrees in Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Molecular Cellular Biology & Molecular Biophysics. His contributions to the field are well-documented through numerous publications, speaking invitations, committee appointments, and recognitions.

Christine Longroy is the Senior Director of Ecosystem at LIFT.

With a passion for creating meaningful impact and a dedication to excellence, Longroy is a driving force behind Ecosystem development at LIFT.

Prior to her role at LIFT, Longroy held various positions with SME, Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Her reputation for fostering collaboration, building lasting relationships, and driving sustainable growth is a testament to her dedication to manufacturing.
Longroy leverages her extensive experience and expertise to lead transformative initiatives that connect manufacturers within technology and innovation. With a career spanning over two decades, Longroy has cultivated a deep understanding of manufacturing and its interplay between technology, business, and collaboration. Her visionary leadership has consistently driven success in building and nurturing ecosystems that foster innovation, enhance competitiveness, and create value for all stakeholders.

Longroy holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Western Michigan University and is a member of the SME.

Nancy Cummins is the Vice President, Corporate Controller at LIFT.

Nancy is a Certified Public Accountant. Nancy’s focus is ensuring LIFT complies with non-profit accounting and grant regulations. She is responsible for internal and external financial reporting and oversees the annual independent audit.

Nancy received her CPA license in 2013 and has more than 15 years of professional experience in accounting and finance. Prior to joining LIFT, Nancy worked as an audit manager at the second largest accounting firm in Michigan for 8 years with specialties in non-profit and benefit plan audits.

Nancy received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, and a Master’s of Science in Accounting from Eastern Michigan University. She serves on two non-profit boards in the Detroit area.

Sherri Diehl is the Vice President, Program Controller at LIFT.

Diehl is a Certified Project Management Professional and Government Financial Manager. Her focus at LIFT is contract management, program financial controls, and compliance. She is responsible for ensuring adherence to contractual and regulatory requirements and optimizing program performance.

Diehl has over 30 years of professional experience in finance. Prior to joining LIFT, she provided support and oversight in program and contract management as well as the development of methodologies, processes and tools that have aided organizations in their development, consolidation and reorganization of financial management activities.

Diehl began her career with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and served as a Financial Management Solution Area Leader. She led teams of consultants on financial management projects focused on process improvement, process re-engineering, financial audits and account reconciliation.

Diehl received her Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Ohio State University.

Pete Czech is the Senior Director, Facility Security at LIFT.

Czech supports the Executive level Technology Team and Finance and Administration Team with knowledge and support for government programs and performance support efforts while providing business and Program Management consulting services.

He joined the School of Program Managers in 2009. He supported executive level courses and performance support efforts, in addition to providing consulting services.

Czech joined Chrysler Corporation in 1978. In his 30-year career, he was highlighted as Program Manager for the Volkswagen Routan, bringing the program from design to market. As Build Manager, he brought low-rate production prototypes for 10 different carlines - winning awards for excellence in bringing new products to the market quicker. He was supervisor for durability testing for large car and minivan products. He has benchmarked international companies for their key business and metrics for the testing processes.

Czech Received his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from Lawrence Institute of Technology, Southfield, MI, in 1978. He obtained a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Lawrence Institute of Technology in 1990, and a Master’s degree of Engineering from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2000.

Hadrian Rori is a Senior Technical Advisor at Detroit-based LIFT, one of the founding Manufacturing USA institutes.

Mr. Rori is an accomplished executive with over 34 years of experience in product creation and quality improvement, and previously served as the Chief Technology Officer at LIFT.

His previously held positions include consultation to suppliers and entrepreneurial start-ups in the automotive sector providing operational guidance in application development and manufacturing ramp-up from small-scale prototyping to series production.

Prior positions also include Executive Vice President for Akebono Brake Corporation, where he was responsible for North American Engineering, Quality and Program Management. In addition, he served as Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Bright Automotive. A manufacturer of state-of-the-art lightweight, hybrid electric vehicles for commercial and government fleets.

Prior to Bright Automotive, Mr. Rori spent 24 years with Chrysler Corporation where he held a variety of product engineering executive positions. His last role at Chrysler was Director of Chassis Engineering for body-on-frame products. Prior to this position, he was senior manager – Jeep® Vehicle Development where he directed the group responsible for functional and quality objectives, vehicle testing, and development for the Grand Cherokee® program.

Mr. Rori has a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.S. in Engineering Management from the University of Detroit. He holds four U.S. patents – two patents for lightweight vehicles and associated components and two patents for advanced passenger car chassis systems.